Shows / The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Parsha Podcast with Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe was started in 2016 with the goal of making the weekly Parsha accessible and useful. Every Sunday, the Parsha Podcast will feature an hour-long podcast outlining the story, narratives and major themes of that week’s Parsha and offer a selection of valuable and interesting insights from it. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, two more episodes that focuses on one idea, theme, or comment on the Parsha will be released. Please send comments or questions to…
Episodes
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Pinchas (Rebroadcast)
Pinchas was a man of action, a zealot who avenged God’s vengeance and was handsomely rewarded for it. In this parsha we read about his reward, Moses’…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Chukas & Balak – Methods of Transformation
In the first of this week’s double parsha, we read about the death of two giants: Miriam and Aaron, Moshe’s older sister and brother, pass away. Our sages tell…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Balak – Some Men Are From Mars (5781)
Our parsha contains an attempted genocide. Bilaam, the prophet of the idolaters, a man of prodigious ability an skill, dedicates himself with tenacity and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Chukas – Inglorious Origins (5781)
The red cow is the Torah’s most mysterious mitzvah. We are told to take a completely red cow and slaughter it, and burn it’s body together with a concoction of…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Chukas & Balak (Rebroadcast)
In Parshas Chukas, we read about a highly unusual mitzvah: The Red Heifer, when an entirely red cow is burned together with a motley concoction of ingredients…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Korach – Korach’s Insatiability
Korach was immensely talented. He was enormously rich, he was clever, and he was devilishly persuasive. His rebellion, however, was doomed from the start. What…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Korach – Demoted For Good (5781)
Korach was a very talented man with a sterling pedigree. He was wise and clever and even had a degree of prophetic clairvoyance. Yet he blundered egregiously…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Korach (Rebroadcast)
In this week’s parsha, Moshe and Aaron’s first cousin, a man named Korach, launches a rebellion claiming that Moshe is guilty of nepotism in appointing his…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Shelach – Despising Limitations
The nation was on the cusp of entering the Land. After about a year at Sinai, the nation was ready to conquer Canaan. The invasion and war of conquest was…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Shelach – Daydreams, Nightmares, and Reveries (5781)
The final five verses of our Parsha contain the third paragraph of the Shema. In it, we are instructed to place tzitzis strings wrapped with a string of blue…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Shelach (Rebroadcast)
The Jewish people were on the cusp of entering the Land of Canaan, and made a prudent, but ultimately tragic, decision: To send a contingent of scouts to…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Behaaloscha – Bad Old Days
After a year at Sinai, the nation is finally on the move. Following the precise protocol of disassembly and decampment, the nation marches off from Sinai…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Behaaloscha – Kindle Fire (5781)
Aaron the High Priest held a critical leadership role in the nation. A partial list of his jobs: he offered sacrifices, he did the Yom Kippur services which…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Behaaloscha (Rebroadcast)
The Jewish nation has been encamped at Mount Sinai for nearly a year; in this week’s parsha they finally depart from the Mountain of God, and sadly leave…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Nasso – Nazirs Anonymous
The Nazir is someone who accepts a vow, typically for 30 days, to abstain from wine, to not cut their hair, and to not come into contact with the dead. This…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
*Shavuos Special* – Accepting the Torah: Ruth, Sinai, and the Heart of Shavuos
The Sinai Revelation is the most significant event in all of human history: God revealed Himself to the entire Jewish people, He spoke to them, He gave them…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Nasso – Princely Pendulum (5781)
The Princes of the Tribes make several notable contributions at the inauguration of the Tabernacle: They contribute 12 oxen and 6 covered wagons to aid the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Nasso (Rebroadcast)
In the longest parsha in the Torah by verses, we continue to read about the Levite families and their responsibilities, we learn about the three tiers of the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Bamidbar – Common Census
The United States Constitution mandates that a nationwide census is conducted every decade. Other nations also conduct censuses. Censuses are common. Our…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Bamidbar – Flag-Bearers (5781)
At first glance, Parshas Bamidbar seems like a snoozefest: it’s very technical, counting the people, assigning the tribes to their encampments, counting the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Bamidbar (Rebroadcast)
We kickstart the Book of Numbers with a census of the twelve tribes of Israel – not including the tribe of Levi who is counted independently – conducted by…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Behar Bechukosai – Hostage Letter
Our Parsha contains some of the most difficult portions in the Torah, the Admonition. Our nation is told of the consequences of failing to adhere to the rules…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parsha: Behar & Bechukosai – Divine Nudge (5781)
Two years ago, our nation underwent an unprecedented calamity. At our people’s largest annual festival, the celebration of Lag ba’Omer in Meron, a crowd crush…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Behar & Bechukosai (Rebroadcast)
This week’s double-Parsha closes out the Book of Leviticus. Parshas Behar begins at Mount Sinai, where the Almighty instructed Moshe to convey a series of laws…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Emor – Snowball’s Chance in Heaven
The story of the first person to ever be executed in a Jewish court of law is featured at the end of this week’s Parsha. An unnamed man, the son of an…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Emor – Sense of Belonging (5781)
Our parsha contains the first recorded instance of capital punishment in Jewish history. A disgruntled man, the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Emor (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Emor contains a staggering 56 mitzvos, nearly all of them relating to either to the Kohanim, the priests, or to the Festivals, and the parsha ends with…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – It’s a Small World
Our double Parsha contains many different mitzvos. In this podcast we study a set of mitzvos and a very interesting dispute about their nature. We discover a…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – Challenge Accepted (5781)
Our Nation has always had bad neighbors. The Midrash in our Parsha states that the Egyptians and the Canaanites, both nations that our people lived in close…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Acharei & Kedoshim (Rebroadcast)
This week’s double-parsha contains a smorgasbord of mitzvos. The three chapters of Parshas Acharei cover three general categories. First we read about the Yom…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Tazria Metzora – Heaven on the Cheap
This week’s double Parsha contains some of the most intricate and complex laws in the Torah, the laws of purity and impurity. This subject remains an enigmatic…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Tazria/Metzora – Blessings in Disguises (5781)
Tzaraas, the spiritual leprosy whose laws are detailed in our Parsha, appeared in three different areas: the befell sinners’ skin, clothing, and house. How…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Tazria & Metzora (Rebroadcast)
A very large percentage of Torah is dedicated to the laws of purity and impurity. This week’s double Parshas of Tazria and Metzora largely deal with these…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Shemini – Fires, Foreign and Domestic
Nadav and Avihu were the crown princes of the Jewish nation. These two sons were slated to succeed Moshe and Aaron. Moshe declared, without hyperbole, that his…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Shemini – Find Your Breach (5781)
The 8th day of the Tabernacle’s Inauguration was supposed to be a day of total, exuberant jubilation. The laborious months of preparation were complete, and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Shemini (Rebroadcast)
After months of preparation and building, and a week of inauguration, the nation was anticipating the climax of the Tabernacle experience: When God finally…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Tzav – Pure-Bread
On the first day of a Kohein’s tenure doing service in the Temple, they bring a once-in-a-lifetime offering: a meal-offering that is almost identical to the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Tzav – Ashes, Ashes, We all Rise Up (5781)
The beginning of our parsha details the intricate processing of the Olah offerings. The animal is slaughtered, its blood is sprinkled on the Altar walls, it is…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Tzav (Rebroadcast)
In continuation of the themes of last week, Parshas Tzav details the procedures of processing many of the sacrifices enumerated in Parshas Vayikra, teaches us…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayikra: Five-Course Meal Offering with Rabbi Dovid Biron
We begin the Book of Leviticus with a Parsha Podcast treat: I invited my friend and study partner Rabbi Dovid Biron to guest host this week’s episode. He did…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayikra – Vicarious Sacrifice (5781)
Sacrifices sound like a cheat code: You sin and you rebelled against God and your soul gets tarnished. By the strict letter of the law, sin ought to be an…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayikra (Rebroadcast)
In Parshas Vayikra, the first Torah section in The Book of Leviticus, we learn about the processes and procedures of many different varieties of sacrifices…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayakhel Pekudei – Laver of Love
Our double Parsha delineates the implementation phases of the building of the Tabernacle. All the materials are assembled, all the artisans are ready, and the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayakhel Pekudei – On Giants’ Shoulders feat. Akiva Wolbe (5781)
Bezalel was the architect of the most consequential building project of all time. He was tasked with the responsibility of building the Mishkan, the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayakhel & Pekudei (Rebroadcast)
After the Torah delineates the instructions to assemble the materials for the construction of the Tabernacle in Parshas Terumah and the creation of the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Ki Sisa – Aaron’s Calculus
The most calamitous, catastrophic, disastrous event in Jewish history – and arguably the most devastating event in all of human history – happens in our…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Ki Sisa – Hold Your Fire (5781)
Our nation commits the most grievous sin of our history in this week’s parsha. A mere 40 days after we experienced the national revelation at Sinai, the nation…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Ki Sisa (Rebroadcast)
This week’s parsha contains several instructions related to the Tabernacle, but the majority of the parsha is dedicated to arguably the most shocking and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Tetzaveh – The Choshen People
The High Priest was bedecked with garments of royalty. Our Parsha details the 8 special garments (vestments) of Splendor and Glory that the Kohen Gadol wore…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Tetzaveh – The Great Collaboration (5781)
Besides being brothers, Moshe and Aaron were both leaders of the Jewish people: Moshe was the king and Aaron was the high priest. These brothers had different…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Tetzaveh (Rebroadcast)
In a natural continuation to Parshas Terumah, in Parshas Tetzaveh we learn about the instructions to build the Tabernacle. Whereas last week the focus was on…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Terumah – Etched in Stone
Please support the annual TORCH fundraiser at giveTORCH.org Every donation is DOUBLED. Our organization, TORCH, runs one annual fundraiser, and it is happening…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Terumah – 3 Points Behind the Ark (5781)
In the epicenter of the Tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, was the Ark of the Covenant. This golden vessel was the receptacle of the Tablets, both the First…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Terumah (Rebroadcast)
One of the fundamental principles of Jewish philosophy is the idea of “Kedushah”, holiness. Holiness, according to the Jewish definition, is when the physical…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Mishpatim – System of Sinai
The Parsha that follows the Revelation at Sinai contains an apparently motley potpourri of subjects: it begins with a wide variety of mitzvos of all types…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Secret of Parshas Shekalim With Rabbi Shmuly Botnick
Please support the annual TORCH fundraiser at giveTORCH.org Every donation is DOUBLED. Our organization, TORCH, runs one annual fundraiser, and it is happening…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Mishpatim – Crowning Achievement (5781)
The end of our Parsha revisits the Sinai Revelation of Parsha Yisro and recounts some of the preparations for the Ten Commandments. In the negotiations and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Mishpatim (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Mishpatim marks a stark change in the rhythm and pace of the Torah narrative. The preceding 17 Parshas contained a total of 41 mitzvos; this week we…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Yisro – Sinai Sales Pitch
Our Parsha contains the most significant event in all of human history: the Revelation at Sinai. An entire nation comprised of millions of people heard the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Yisro – Jethro’s Epiphany (5781)
The protagonist of our parsha, Jethro, underwent a long and fruitful spiritual journey. When the journey began, Jethro was a idolater who worshipped every…